Storage

Windows 11 includes various tools and interfaces to help you manage your PC’s internal and external storage devices. These devices are used to contain Windows and other system files, plus installed applications and your documents and other data files, and while most of this behavior is automated and optimized for you, you may sometimes need or want to customize or manage various storage-related features.

Defaults

All Windows PCs have at least one internal fixed disk, typically a solid-state drive (SSD). But it’s possible to add additional disks to most desktop PCs and even some laptops, some of which may still be of the old-fashioned hard disk drive (HDD) type. And most Windows users are probably familiar with USB-based removable disks, which are typically SSDs, HDDs, or smaller-capacity drives sometimes referred to as memory sticks or thumb drives.

Whatever the underlying technology, disks are divided, internally, into one or more volumes (sometimes referred to as partitions) that are formatted using a file system so that they can be used to store the files and folders required by Windows and its users.

For the most part, you don’t need to be concerned with the low-level details of how these storage devices interact with your PC. But it is helpful to understand the handful of Windows 11 storage features that you will run into from time to time. They are:

• Storage settings. This is the modern and primary interface for managing internal and external storage devices.
• Storage Sense. This Windows 11 feature automatically manages storage space by deleting unused files on set schedules.
• Device encryption settings. This Settings-based interface lets you toggle Device encryption for the system disk on or off.
• BitLocker control panel. If you have Windows 11 Pro, you can use this control panel to manage device encryption for any disk, including removable disks that can be encrypted with BitLocker to Go.
• Disk Management. This legacy control panel provides a few features Storage settings lacks, like the ability to change a disk’s drive letter and format removable disks formatted with a file system that Windows doesn’t natively understand.
• Storage Spaces.

Additionally, there are some key interfaces tied to storage you will run into throughout Windows 11, including:

• AutoPlay. You can configure what happens when you connect removable media or insert a media card to your PC in Settings > Bluetooth & devices > AutoPlay.

• Disk formatting. You can format most disks using File Explorer.

By default, Windows 11 handles the following storage-related tasks automatically:

• When you set up a new or reset PC, Windows 11 automatically partitions the entire first or only fixed disk in the PC and uses most of the available space as the system (C:) drive. Other partitions required by Windows–for booting the PC, for example, or to store a recovery image–are hidden from you in File Explorer. (If you clean install Windows 11 using USB installation media, you are provided the opportunity to partition the disk differently.)
• Windows 11 automatically monitors the health of any fixed or removable disks in or attached to your PC and alerts you if and when there are issues.
• Windows 11 automatically optimizes the performance and health of any fixed or removable disks in or attached to your PC on a weekly basis.
• Storage Sense monitors the storage usage of any fixed disks in your PC and automatically deletes unnecessary temporary system and app files and empties the Recycle bin every 30 days.
• Storage Sense monitors the storage usage of your locally synced OneDrive files and automatically deletes any cloud-backed content you’ve not accessed in 30 days. This excludes content you’ve explicitly marked as “Always keep on this device.”
• Windows 11 automatically saves new apps, documents, music, photos, videos, movies and TV shows, and other content to the system disk by default.
• If you sign in to Windows 11 with a Microsoft account (MSA), it will automatically encrypt the system drive to protect your data from physical theft and back up your recovery key in OneDrive.
• Files you delete in File Explorer or on the Desktop are placed in the Recycle bin by default for recovery purposes. It will use up to 1/20th of the total disk space for this purpose, and the Recycle bin will prompt you if you manually empty it.

Customize

Most storage-related settings and customizations are available in Storage settings in the Settings app. You get there by navigating to System > Storage.

Under the “C:” drive heading–which is typically named “Windows (C:)” but will be labeled according to the name you see in File Explorer–you can see what types of files are taking up the storage space in your PC’s system drive and can expand the view if desired.

Storage usage is grouped by type. Some of these entries are read-only, but some can be further configured.

Tip: You can also see what’s taking up space on other fixed and removable storage devices by selecting the link “Storage used on other drives” under the “Advanced storage settings” header on the main Storage settings page.

Some common storage-related customizations you can take on here are described in the next several sections.

View details about storage usage on the system disk by type

Storage settings displays an expandable list of content types, sorted by storage usage, and you can click into any of those items to learn more and, in some cases, configure storage usage in different ways. Some of the key areas to investigate here include:

• Temporary files. This opens the Temporary files page that’s described later in this chapter.
• Installed apps. This navigates to Apps > Installed apps, also described below.
• Other. This displays the storage usage of items that don’t fall into one of the preset categories, like the C:\XboxGames folder that’s used to store any games you download from XBOX on the PC by default. You can click any item here to display that location in File Explorer.

• System & reserved. This displays a System & reserved page that explains how Windows 11 uses storage for itself. The only actionable item is System restore: You can click a “Manage system restore” button to launch the legacy System Restore control panel and configure how much storage this tool reserves for itself.

View details about storage on other disks

As per above, you can also view and, in some cases, configure storage usage on other fixed or removable disks. To do so from Storage settings, navigate to Advanced storage settings > Storage used on other devices and select the disk you wish to inspect. As with the system disk, this page displays an expandable list of content types, sorted by storage usage, and you can click into any of those items to learn more and, in some cases, configure storage usage in different ways.

This works as above.

Configure Storage Sense

The “Storage Sense” option in Storage settings determines whether Windows 11 can automatically manage your storage. But you can also click this item to display Storage Sense settings, which provides several configurable options.

Key customizations here can include:

• Cleanup of temporary files. The option “Keep Windows running smoothly by automatically cleaning up temporary system and app files” duplicates the “Storage Sense” toggle in Storage settings. It’s a global on/off switch for Storage Sense and should be left enabled.
• Automatic user content cleanup. This feature is enabled by default, but you can configure individual cleanup schedules for when Storage Sense runs automatically, when to delete files in the Recycle bin, when to delete files in the Downloads folder (which is disabled by default), and when to free up space by removing cloud-only content from the PC (excluding content you explicitly configured as “Always keep on this device”).
• Run Storage Sense now. Hidden at the bottom of this page is a “Run Storage Space now” button you can use to perform all the automatic content cleanup tasks configured above immediately instead of waiting on their respective schedules. When it’s done, Storage Sense will report how much storage space it reclaimed.

Clean up storage usage manually

You may sometimes notice that your system disk or some other disk is running low on disk space in File Explorer, which graphically highlights any disk with low free disk space.

Though Windows 11 handles this automatically, you can sometimes recover gigabytes of additional storage space using three different tools with overlapping functionality.

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• Delete temporary files. In Storage settings, click the “Temporary files” item under “Windows (C:)” (or similar) and review and configure the list of temporary file types that you can delete. Then, click “Remove files” and address a User Account Control (UAC) prompt to reap the rewards.

• Use Cleanup to free up disk space. In Storage settings, click “Cleanup recommendations” and then use the “See advanced options” link in the “Temporary files” group and the expandable “Large or unused files,” “Files synced to the cloud,” and “Unused apps” items to review and configure what Cleanup will remove. (Note that “See advanced options” displays the “Temporary files” page noted above.) Each section reports how much disk space your selections will save and provide a “Clean” button so you can make it happen.
• Disk Cleanup. This legacy control panel is still available in Windows 11 and accessible via Windows Search. After selecting which fixed disk to work with, click the “Clean up all system files” button to restart the control panel with more choices, select the items you wish to delete, and then click “OK” to get started. This tool is interesting because it can delete items tied to recent Windows 11 feature updates or other updates.

Configure where new content is saved and move existing content to a new location

If you have two or more fixed or removable disks, you can save space on the system disk by configuring Windows 11 to save new content to a non-system disk and, when possible, move existing content, including installed apps and games, to another disk.

• Configure where new content is saved. Navigate from Storage settings to Advanced storage settings > Where new content is saved. Here, you can configure where new apps, documents, music, photos and videos, new movies and TV shows, and other content is saved.

• Move existing apps and games to a new disk. Open Settings and navigate to Apps > Installed apps. Click “More options” (“…”) next to an app or game you wish to move and select “Move” from the menu that appears if available. Then, select the drive to move the content to and click “Move.” (If the “Move” option is not available, this item must stay on the system disk.)

View the health of each fixed and removable disk and partition

Windows 11 will alert you if any fixed or removable disk is exhibiting reliability issues. But you can manually check on the physical health of your disks by navigating from Storage settings to Advanced storage settings > Disks & volumes. Here, you will see each disk in your PC below some virtual hard disk (VHD) and Dev Drive options that indicates the health of each (typically “Healthy” for fixed disks or “Online” for removable disks).

You can expand each disk view to see the partitions each contains. But what you’re really looking for here is whether any disk is experiencing a problem. If so, you will see text in red, like “Warning: issues detected,” next to the impacted disk.

Click “Properties” next to that disk to learn more.

Under “Drive health,” you will see more information about the issue, the estimated remaining lifetime of the hardware expressed as a percentage, a “Click here for more information” link that displays a Microsoft Support page in your default web browser, and a “Back up now” link that navigates settings to Windows backup settings.

Manually optimize a disk

Windows 11 automatically optimizes each fixed and removable disk that’s connected to your PC. This is the optimal configuration for most. But you can manually optimize any attached disk from Storage settings by navigating to Advanced storage settings and clicking the “Drive optimization” item. When you do, the legacy Optimize Drives control panel appears.

Here, you can select a disk to optimize, optionally enable “Advanced View” to add hidden partitions to the view, configure the automated optimization schedule by clicking “Change settings,” or, wait for it, run the optimization tasks manually by clicking “Optimize.”

Tip: Optimization is not available for certain file system types, like exFAT.

Device encryption

Windows 11 includes a full-disk encryption feature called Device encryption that protects the data on your system drive from physical theft.

Tip: Technically speaking, Device encryption does not encrypt your entire system disk, which is divided into different logical volumes or partitions. Instead, it encrypts the C: drive, the system disk that contains Windows and other system files. Any other volumes on this disk will not be encrypted (or be visible normally while using Windows 11).

Defaults

Device encryption is enabled automatically the first time you sign in to Windows 11 using a Microsoft account (or Microsoft Work or school account).

If you sign in to Windows 11 with a local account, Device encryption is partially enabled by default but not activated (fully enabled).

If you are using Windows 11 Home, you can only activate Device encryption by signing in to Windows 11 (at least once) with a Microsoft account. There is no way to further manage this feature; it’s either enabled or not.

If you have Windows 11 Pro, you can use the BitLocker control panel to activate and manage Device encryption for fixed and removable disks, in the latter case using a feature called BitLocker to Go. Windows 11 Home can access removable storage protected by BitLocker to Go, but it cannot create or manage removable storage protected by this feature.

For the most part, Device encryption is seamless and not something you will notice. But it is important to understand that any files that you copy or move to an encrypted disk are encrypted during the copy/move process. Likewise, any files that you copy or move from an encrypted disk are decrypted during that process as well. Decrypted files can be read or used by anyone, on any PC.

Tip: When enabled, Device encryption also provides some additional functionality for the system disk on which Windows is installed. For example, when the PC boots, it will examine the integrity of the system to ensure that nothing suspicious has happened to the PC’s firmware or startup files. If an issue is found, you’ll be prompted to provide the recovery key, which was saved to your Microsoft account (or Work and school account) by default in the form of a very lengthy text-based password.

Customize

You can enable or at least view the status of Device encryption by opening the Settings app and navigating to Privacy & security > Device encryption.

This will typically be enabled by default, as noted above.

Warning: To be clear, do not disable Device encryption.

Manage device encryption with Windows 11 Home

If you are using Windows 11 Home, this is the only interface you get. If you sign in with a local account and try to enable Device encryption here, you are prompted to sign in with a Microsoft account (MSA), and there is no other way to encrypt the disk. So you have a few options:

• Upgrade to Windows 11 Pro. Click the “BitLocker drive encryption” item to open the Microsoft Store app and view Microsoft’s official upgrade offer, which is expensive. A better bet: Use Google or your favorite search engine to find inexpensive Windows 11 Pro product keys online. As an example, I’ve used Product Keys successfully many times, and a Windows 11 product key is often as inexpensive as $9.99. Any of these sites will provide you with a product key you can use by opening the Settings app, navigating to System > Activation, and clicking the “Change” button next to “Change product key.”
• Convert your local account to a Microsoft account or add an MSA sign-in account to automatically encrypt the system disk. You can then convert the account back to a local account or remove the secondary MSA you just added after encryption is complete.

Manage device encryption with Windows 11 Pro

If you are using Windows 11 Pro, the “BitLocker drive encryption” link on the Device encryption settings page opens the legacy BitLocker Drive Encryption control panel when clicked. This interface provides numerous configuration capabilities.

Tip: You can also launch BitLocker Drive Encryption directly using Windows Search.

Tip: Note that because the BitLocker Drive Encryption control panel predates Windows 11, it refers to Device encryption as “BitLocker.” The two terms refer to the same functionality, but I refer to this feature consistently using its correct modern name, which is Device encryption.

Available options for the system drive and other fixed drives includes:

• Turn on BitLocker. This is the only option you’ll see if Device encryption is disabled. Obviously, you can click this to begin encrypting the disk. When you do so, the BitLocker Drive Encryption wizard starts and progresses through several steps, during which you determine where to save the recovery key–which can be in your Microsoft account, to a file saved to a different disk, or even printed out on paper–choose how much of the disk to encrypt up front (where encrypting only the used disk space now will speed the process), and optionally run a BitLocker system check to ensure that your recovery and encryption keys are accessible before starting. This process can take a few minutes or more depending on the size of the disk and how much space is already used.

• Suspend protection. In rare cases–such as when your PC requires a firmware update–you may need to temporarily disable full-disk encryption. This link lets you do so.
• Back up your recovery key. This link displays the BitLocker Drive Encryption wizard so you can back up your Device encryption recovery key to your Microsoft account, a local file, or a printout.

• Turn off BitLocker. If you wish to disable Device encryption entirely, this option is for you. Removing encryption can be time-consuming, but you can at least continue using the PC while this process occurs. Also, don’t ever do this.

Encryption and removable storage

In addition to using Device encryption with fixed disks, you can encrypt a removable storage device–like a USB flash drive or hard drive–using a feature called BitLocker To Go. This feature requires Windows 11 Pro, though removable drives BitLocker To Go work with Windows 11 Home as well.

To get started, connect a removable storage device to your PC and then open the BitLocker Drive Encryption control panel. The device will appear under “Removable data drives – BitLocker To Go.”

Now, expand the view using the caret to the right and select the “Turn on BitLocker” link next to the appropriate disk under “Removable data drives – BitLocker To Go.” The BitLocker Drive Encryption wizard starts and progresses through the following steps:

• Choose how you want to unlock this drive. Here, you must choose a method to unlock the disk. This can be a password–the typical method for most individuals–or a smart card, which is used in corporate environments and controlled by policy. Select “Use a password to unlock the drive” and then supply the same password twice in the provided fields.

Tip: Microsoft recommends that the password you use here contains some combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, spaces, and symbols, but the only requirement is that it be at least 8 characters long.

• How do you want to back up your recovery key? This can be your Microsoft account (which is recommended), to a file (that cannot be the same disk you’re encrypting), or a printout.
• Choose how much of your drive to encrypt. You can immediately encrypt just the used space, which is quicker, or the entire drive, which is slower but the better choice for disks already in use.
• Choose which encryption mode to use. It’s not clear why this option still exists since the “Compatible mode” choice applies to older Windows 10 versions that are no longer supported anyway. Choose “New encryption mode.”
• Are you ready to encrypt this drive? Click “Start encrypting” to start this process.

You can use a removable disk protected with BitLocker to Go with any Windows 11 version, including Home. Doing so works like using a normal, unencrypted disk, with one difference: You have to provide its password first.

Select this prompt to enter the password and access the disk normally.

To automatically unlock this disk when it’s used on this PC only, expand the “More options” link in the password prompt and enable the option “Automatically unlock on this PC.”

If you have Windows 11 Pro, you can manage a removable disk protected with BitLocker to Go using the BitLocker Drive Encryption control panel.

Available options here include:

• Back up your recovery key. This link displays the page of the BitLocker Drive Encryption wizard that lets you back up your BitLocker recovery key to your Microsoft account, a local file, or a printout.
• Change password. This option lets you change the password used to enable access to the encrypted removable disk.
• Remove password. If you have enabled smart card-based authentication for this removable drive, you can optionally remove the password, which is redundant and potentially less secure.
• Add smart card. Corporate environments often provide smart cards to their employees as a more secure way to access resources like encrypted disks. This type of thing is very uncommon with individuals, however, and can usually be ignored.
• Turn on/off auto-unlock. If you would prefer not to enter a password every time you insert this removable disk on this PC, you can disable that requirement using this option.
• Turn off BitLocker. If you wish to disable encryption entirely, this option will let you do so. Removing encryption can be time-consuming, but you can continue using the PC while this process occurs.

Find and use a BitLocker recovery key

Every disk that is protected with Device encryption (or BitLocker to Go) has an associated recovery key, a 40-digit alphanumeric string of characters that is saved to your Microsoft account automatically if you sign in to Windows with that account type.

Tip: Otherwise, you were asked to save the recovery key to a Microsoft account, file, or printout.

Windows 11 creates this key automatically when it first encrypts the system drive, and if you later encrypt other disks, you are prompted to create a recovery key for each at that time. This is because you must create a recovery key for each disk you encrypt.

To access your recovery keys in OneDrive, open a web browser and navigate to the BitLocker recovery keys page. After signing in and authenticating as needed, you’ll be presented with the list of keys that are associated with your Microsoft account. Annoyingly, they are presented in no particular order, and this list cannot be sorted by date, PC name, or other criteria.

You can now use the appropriate recovery key to access an encrypted disk for which you’ve forgotten the password. You can also use this key if you created a recovery key for the system disk and the PC won’t boot because BitLocker discovered a potential issue. In that case, it’s a good idea to open the BitLocker recovery keys on your phone.

Advanced storage management

Windows 11 includes a few advanced storage management features that will mostly be of interest to power users.

Disk Management

Windows 11 includes a legacy storage management utility called Disk Management that can come in handy from time to time. It is one of several tools that is made available from the Windows 11 Quick link menu, which you can display by right-clicking the Start button or typing Windows key + X. But you can also find Disk Management with Windows Search by typing the beginning of its name (like disk m) and then selecting “Create and format hard disk partitions” in the search results.

Much of the functionality provided by this Disk Management control pane is available in Storage settings. But it still offers some unique features and some features that I feel are easier to use here:

• Change a drive letter. Windows 11 automatically assigns drive letters (like C: and D:) to every compatible volume found on any fixed and removable storage devices attached to the PC. But you may sometimes want to assign a specific drive letter to a (non-system) disk. To do so, right-click it, choose “Change Drive Letter and Paths…” from the menu that appears, and then change the drive letter as prompted.

• Format a removable disk that uses a file system Windows 11 doesn’t understand. If you insert a removable disk that is formatted using a file system that Windows doesn’t understand, it will not appear in File Explorer or be otherwise accessible. But you can often access these disks with Disk Management and, if desired, format them so that they will work normally with Windows. (This will delete all the data on this disk, of course.) To do so, delete all the volumes on the relevant disk, create a new simple volume to fill the available space, and then format it using the NTFS file system. (The default choice is the more inefficient FAT32 for some reason.)

Storage Spaces

Mainstream Windows 11 users will never need this technology, but Windows 11 includes an advanced storage feature called Storage Spaces that stores data on two or more fixed disks to help prevent data loss if a single storage device fails. Storage Spaces is a modern replacement for RAID (originally, Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks) solutions. And it lets you configure multiple drives or volumes into a single storage pool and create virtual drives called storage spaces in different resiliency configurations like Simple (no resiliency), Two-way mirror (the default), Three-way mirror, Parity, or Dual-parity.

Storage Spaces is beyond the scope of this book, but it requires at least two extra fixed disks in addition to the system disk and a deep understanding of how storage works and which resiliency configuration is right for your needs.

More info: You can learn more about Storage Spaces on the Microsoft Learn website.